Amazon Throws 'A League Of Their Own' Fans Scraps With 4-Episode Final Season Announcement
Despite prompting outrage online, and the popular hashtag, "#MoreThanFour," Amazon held firm on only giving beloved LGBTQIA+ series A League of Their Own four more episodes for their second and final season, which they are billing as a "limited series."
The series, co-created by star Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham, focuses on queer and Black stories from the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. One of the show's consultants is Maybelle Blair, an All American Girls Professional Baseball League veteran, and a gay woman who only came out publicly at age 95, during the press tour for this show. The series was also given the go-ahead from Penny Marshall - the director of the 1992 film of the same name - before she passed away.
In addition to telling profound and important queer love stories, A League of Their Own also shined a light on the hardships of Black women baseball players, who were not permitted to join the league. Chanté Adams gives a beautiful and heartbreaking performance as Max, a determined queer athlete who just wants to play the game.
The eight-episode first season has an impressive 94 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. The gift of a series also features remarkable performances by Jacobson, D'Arcy Carden, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Roberta Colindrez, Kelly McCormack, Priscilla Delgado, Molly Ephraim, and Melanie Field. Grateful to everyone involved in this show, but especially for Graham, who fought so hard to get and keep this show on the air.
“Making this show and seeing the impact it has had in the world has been an incredible joy. While obviously we were hoping for 11 seasons, we’re grateful to be able to continue to tell the story of these characters and this world,” Graham and Jacobson said in a joint statement.
Apparently, Graham clashed with marketing execs who only wanted to use testing and data to evaluate shows, per The Hollywood Reporter. They said that audiences found the queerness of A League of Their Own "off-putting" and suggested downplaying it while promoting the show. Seeing as sources say that broad series with straight, white, male leads are rated above all others, that certainly doesn't leave much space at the streamer for a sweet, poignant show about serious topics and themes that are still deeply impacting us today.
Graham expressed concern about the bias built into Amazon’s system, and they reportedly took the complaints seriously, dropping the system of ranking based on audience scores. The series was even referred to as a "proxy for how diverse and inclusive shows are treated." You'd like to think this wouldn't be an issue in 2023, but this is also a country that is actively attacking trans people, and voted that horrible reality star into office.
Deeply sad that there will only be four new episodes, but also so grateful that we're getting anything at all. Thank you to Graham for fighting so hard for this lovely little community of fans of this beautiful show.
If you haven't watched it yet, you need to check it out on Prime Video ASAP.
